Yes – I saw Dan Fogelberg.

Dan Fogelberg’s always been a little bit on the light side for me. BUT. I did see him play, at Saratoga Performing Arts Center, in….hmmmm. Musta been 1987. How I ended up there, I do not know. But I found this pretty interesting…

DAN FOGELBERG’S LAST SONGS FEATURED ON HIS FINAL ALBUM, LOVE IN TIME

The first song on his first album began with strings, sustaining a hauntingly beautiful chord which faded into the song “To The Morning;” a song of hope invoking the day with the lyric, “There is really nothing left to say but ‘come on, morning.'” “Birds”, the last song on this, his last studio album, ends with the lyric, “It’s over,” and a similar sustained chord, fading to end the album. Long time fans, upon hearing the final chord of “Birds”, have said they expected to hear “To The Morning” begin to play. And so the ending meets the beginning, “In a spiral never-ending”.

In 2006, Dan Fogelberg, the renowned singer-songwriter whose career spanned three decades and helped define introspective ballads and the acoustic-based rock music of the ‘70s and ‘80s, completed the recordings for an album he titled Love In Time and put them in a safe deposit box. Diagnosed with cancer two years earlier, he had not performed since, and asked his wife Jean to release the album after his death. Fogelberg, at age 56, passed away on December 16, 2007. Released digitally on August 13, 2009, which would’ve been Fogelberg’s 58th birthday, Love In Time (Full Moon/UMe) will finally be released physically to retail on September 22, 2009.

Filled with great melodies and heartfelt lyricism, Love In Time is lifted up by Fogelberg’s versatile voice; at times soft and angelic, at times gravely and bluesy. Both a reflection of his beginnings and a testament to where his talent had taken him, the project began in 2003, before his diagnosis. While compiling material for a CD of live recordings, Fogelberg came upon several rough demos he had made earlier in his career. Inspired to finish them, he worked on the songs until May 2004, when he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

During his subsequent battle with cancer, he also recorded three completely new songs in 2005 — “Come To The Harbor,” written in Maine on his boat while waiting for his wife Jean to join him for a harbor dance; “Sometimes A Song”, a Valentine for Jean; and “Birds”, which he dedicated to her. They joined “Soft Voice,” “So Many Changes,” “A Growing Time,” “The Colors Of Eve,” “Diamonds To Dust,” “Nature Of The Game,” “Days To Come” and the title track to round out Love In Time, which Fogelberg produced, recorded, sequenced, and played all the instruments on. All of the tracks make their physical debuts on Love In Time; only “Sometimes A Song” has been previously released digitally, as a download on Valentine’s Day 2008 to benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Love In Time was preceded by 2003’s Full Circle, his first studio album of original songs since 1993’s River Of Souls. Celebrated by fans and acclaimed by critics, Full Circle was considered Fogelberg’s return to the artistic heights he had previously scaled.

The Peoria-born Fogelberg was performing in coffeehouses around the University of Illinois when he was discovered. His 1972 debut album, Home Free, led to 1974’s Joe Walsh-produced Souvenirs and stardom. Each of his first eight albums earned at least gold, with Souvenirs, Nether Lands (1977), Phoenix (1979) and The Innocent Age (1981) double platinum, and Captured Angel (1975) and Twin Sons Of Different Mothers (1978), featuring flutist Tim Weisberg, platinum. His 1982 Greatest Hits album went triple platinum.

He kicked off a string of 11 Top 40 Pop hits (four Top 10s) with “Part Of The Plan” and “The Power Of Gold,” and included eight straight Adult Contemporary Top 10s among them, starting with the wedding standard “Longer” (#1/#2 Pop), and continuing with “Heart Hotels,” “Same Old Lang Syne,” “Hard To Say,” “Leader Of The Band” (#1), “Run For The Roses,” “Missing You” and “Make Love Stay” (#1). Fogelberg later scored four other AC Top 10s, including the #1 “Believe In Me.”

With Love In Time, as his wife Jean has written: “His music continues– a living legacy to one of the most versatile and talented musicians, singers, and songwriters of his generation.”

“In a spiral never-ending are we drawn toward the source Spinning at the mercy of an unrelenting force So we stare into the emptiness and fall beneath the weight Circling the Nexus in a fevered dance with fate Wealthy the spirit that knows its own flight Stealthy the hunter who slays his own fright Blessed the traveler who journeys the length of the light”